Journal 3- Keeping the Peace - NETS 5

Levinson, Matt. (2010). Keeping the peace. Learning & Leading with Technology, 37(5), Retrieved from http://www.iste.org/AM/Template.cfmSection=February_No_5_4&Template=/MembersOnly.cfm&NavMenuID=4495&ContentID=25237&DirectListComboInd=D

This article is about problems encountered with Instant Messaging when Nueva Middle School launched their one-to-one laptop program in 2007.  Whereas, students’ parents view technology as information, it was clear that youth view technology as entertainment and a means of socializing.  Eventually, the school had to ban the use of IM.  As soon as the program started, students were IMing one another during class.  After school, they spent their time video messaging, and, apparently, one student let another see his mother in her pajama.  One frustrated teacher said she would not use the laptops in her classroom.  There were heated debates between parents and faculty, some wanting school restrictions, some wanting students the freedom to learn.  When iChat was eventually blocked on the school laptops, there was an outcry.  Students petitioned and students and parents alike wrote letters.  One student wrote that students used iChat for important issues and the decision to ban it should be up to individuals’ parents.  One parent felt that iChat had broken down “cliques” and offered her commuting student an opportunity for socialization with her classmates.  Again, this parent was against the censorship.  Some parents, however, were for it, feeling that by providing the software for the student the school’s authority had clashed with their own.  After the first year, the school instituted new policies such as, a laptop orientation for incoming students, a partnership with Common Sense Media, online research training, faculty training, parent education workshops, an acceptable use policy that must be signed before laptop distribution, a school-only IM program for use with teacher permission, and continued flexibility to manage the cultural divide between adults and children and to deal with the students’ “social landscape”.   

Should the school have let the students’ parents decide on a case-by-case basis?  I would usually agree that something of this sort is best left for the parents to decide.  However, I can understand this perspective from the author of the article:  we did not want to “pit those who had access against those who did not.”

Could the school do more as far as their new policies regarding the student laptops?  I think the school has implemented a great plan for educating teachers, parents, and students about the appropriate use of the new technology.  Common Sense Media seems like an especially great resource from detailed rating for the newest movies to advice on cyberbullying issues.